He's Back...

Sam the Man is back, and he's got a brand new plan...

Welcome to the online home of author Frances O’Roark Dowell

We’re very glad you are here!

If you are a student working on a book report or homework assignment, you’ll find most of the information you are looking for in the Biography section, but also please be sure to check out the Writing Advice for Kids section, which is full of tips and creative writing prompts for young writers.

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the award-winning author of such novels as Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Children’s Book Award; the bestselling Secret Language of Girls trilogy; Shooting the Moon, which received a Christopher Award; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; the teen novel, Ten Miles Past Normal; and the new Sam the Man series for younger readers. Her first for adult readers was the quilting novel Birds in the Air, which was followed by a short story collection about the quilting life titled Margaret Goes Modern.

What’s wonderful is how Dowell, the author of several beloved books for tweens and teenagers including the Edgar-winning ‘Dovey Coe,’ gracefully draws the many concentric circles of Abby’s life.

The Second Life of Abigail Walker

This thoughtful and satisfying story is more a novel of family and growth than of war. Readers will find beauty in its resolution, and will leave this eloquent heroine reluctantly. This is Dowell’s most cohesive and engaging novel yet.